Notice the makeup the woman is wearing? It’s definitely clown-ish, which means that the show is continuing in the theme of clowns with affinity for bees. The most obvious way to interpret this is that the cult (of clowns?) has a “hive mentality,” and that the bees aren’t so literal as they are a symbol for groupthink.

Of course, that means we’re ignoring the photo Murphy shared, which seemingly showed torture by bees. Unless, maybe, it’s not torture but some form of worship? Maybe the clowns straight-up love bees. Maybe the cult is actually hoping to replace the United States government with a bunch of bees. (I’m not saying that they would get more done, but…)

Right now, any analysis of the poster of the bee symbolism is pure speculation. Since American Horror Story tends to use symbolic imagery to promote the new season (meaning, the actual actors or characters typically don’t appear in the posters or trailers) we really won’t know what to expect until the night of the premiere.